Minds and Hearts: The Story of James Otis Jr. and Mercy Otis Warren Paperback – June 25, 2021

There are few things as intellectually satisfying than learning something you realize that not only should you have known all along but that also should be more general knowledge for everyone. Ron Chernow did exactly that with Alexander Hamilton and with Ulysses S. Grant. He raised our consciousness of them to their rightful level in our understanding of American history. The magnificent story of the Otis siblings, James and Mercy, is one that we all should know. You will be pleased and will feel rewarded for learning the story of the Otis siblings in this excellent volume about the intellectual stirrings of what later made this country what it is. And Jeff Hacker does a no less skillful, insightful, unerringly gripping and entertaining job of illuminating this history as Mr. Chernow has done with his subjects.The "founding fathers" had American antecedents. The ideas they espoused and enshrined in the Declaration and in the Constitution did not spring out of the North American frontier and into their heads. In colonial America, these principles were first espoused and refined and advocated by a cadre of progressive and intellectual figures, primary among whom were these two remarkable siblings. And perhaps the most interesting and remarkable part of this book is about Mercy Otis, a uniquely American heroine who is also as universal as equality and freedom. This "founding mother" has been overlooked . . . until now.You have to love this story. And on one could tell it better than Mr. Hacker has. Run out and buy this book now.

I read it and it was fairly good

Even many readers of early American history who know the names of James Otis and sister Mercy Otis Warren don't fully grasp their importance to the American Revolution. In Hearts and Minds, Jeffrey Hacker provides a vivid overview of their lives and accomplishments. We see them growing up together, walking in the marshes of the Massachusetts countryside, discussing their beloved Locke, and figuring things out together as the two intellectuals amongst the Otis brood.James Otis would become a leading Boston lawyer. His arguments in the Writs of Assistance case fired John Adams so much Adams later would write that American independence was born "then and there." Otis's pamphlets would fuel the flames of independence and also play an important role in creating a very American notion of the Constitution as being something above the ordinary law of the legislature, a concept that would take hold in 1787 and play an important role in our distinctive constitutional form of government.Mercy would become the first historian of the revolution. Her plays and poetry would reach the more ordinary people that James's pamphlets could not. Her writings in the debate over the ratification of the Constitution would lead to the creation of the Bill of Rights.In under 300 pages, Hacker provides an insightful picture of the political and religious controversies and a serves as a great introduction to these two important figures.